Hasbro today announced that the next product to come out of its Magic Digital Next initiative will be Magic: The Gathering Arena. “Designed for Magic fans and beyond,” Arena will feature “AAA graphics” and serve as a platform for growing Magic as an esport, said Chris Cocks, head of Wizards of the Coast.

Magic: The Gathering Arena is currently in alpha testing and will open to public beta testing in the fall (details of that process to be revealed September 7th on the Magic Twitch channel).

This announcement follows recent news of a Magic MMO being developed by Cryptic Studios and a highly anticipated schedule of set releases leading in to the card game’s 25th anniversary next summer. In September, Ixalan will release with vampires, dinosaurs, and pirates. December will see Unstable, a unconventional, silver-bordered, un-set (not legal for standard tournament play), followed by a 25th Anniversary Masters set in March 2018 and Dominaria in April. Core sets are also returning, with one scheduled for next July.

According to WOTC, 2017 has already seen a 27 percent increase in the number of new Magic players and a 150 percent increase in viewers of events on its Twitch channel.

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Upper Deck’s Legendary deck-building game is getting a digital version (iOS, Android, and Steam). Legendary DXP will feature a new fantasy setting, solo and match play, and a “gauntlet” mode for 5-player competitions and weekly leagues.

Magic: The Gathering is also due for a new digital version, this time in the form of a MMORPG from Cryptic Studios.

Codename Entertainment has licensed Dungeons & Dragons for a clicker game, Idle Champions of the Forgotten Realms. The game will take players on a quest through the Sword Coast region and will feature at launch two characters from the Force Grey streaming series. Updates and additional features, including a tie-in to the Tomb of Annihilation, are scheduled to occur monthly.

For the hard-core board gamer, the Board Game Stats app, useful for tracking one’s collection and logging games played, is now available on Android.

Ports of solitaire favorite Friday are now available on Android and iOS.

Race for the Galaxy, already available on Android and iOS, is now also good on PC via Steam ($7). It can be played against AI or cross-platform multiplayer. Both the Gathering Storm and Rebel vs Imperium expansions are available as add-ons at $4 each.

Asmodee Digital has launched Spot It! on mobile as Spot It! Duel: A Dobble Game (Android and iOS). In this digital form, as players progress through various arenas, they collect Dobble characters, who convey special powers. Spot It! Duel is free-to-play, with in-app purchases.

The Renegade Games Companion App has been upgraded with support for Clank! Sunken Treasures. And another game from Renegade has been announced by Dire Wolf Digital. Lotus, the game about assembling flowers from individual petals, is due on Android and iOS later this summer.

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Tabletop Simulator via Steam is on-sale for 50% off.

Talisman and other PC games from Nomad Games are also on-sale via Steam—up to 80% off.

Eagle-Gryphon Games is running a sale on expansions.

Cool Stuff Inc. is running a 4th of July Sale through Sunday, almost exclusively on CCGs. Also, in celebration of receiving its 3 millionth order, the company is giving away a Twilight Struggle Collector’s Edition, a Magic: The Gathering Modern Masters 2013 Booster Box, and a $400 gift certificate.

For Independence Day, several of the 7th Sea ebooks are on-sale for more than 50% off.

Dog Might Games’ Independence Day sale means 10% off all in-stock items, 20% off all dice, and free shipping in the U.S.

At Bundle of Holding, there’s a deal for Colonial Gothic, a supernatural horror RPG set in the colonies and around the American War of Independence.

Today only, save 25% on orders of $35 or more from HexBug.

For 15% off from Toys “R” Us, use coupon code “JULY15OFF”, but do it today. It’s no good tomorrow.

For 20% off orders from HasbroToyShop, use promo code “JULYSAVE17” (also ending today).

Save 25% on Drink Trayz and get one free for every $20 spent at GameTrayz with code “4THDRINK”. (Drink Trayz are can and cup holders meant to resist tips and collect condensation at the game table.)

Use coupon code “CATALOG30” to save 30% on all in-stock games from Compass Games.

Fat Dragon Games has put six of their 3D printing model sets on pay-what-you-want pricing through July 10th.

The three (PDF) books of the Deadlands Dime Novel Series are more than 10¢ but still 50% off.

Giveaways:

• By BoardGamePrices, Clank! from Renegade Game Studios.
• By The Giveaway Geek, Deception: Undercover Allies from Grey Fox Games and the base game and Toxic City Mall expansion to Zombicide from CMON.
• By Gen Con, a Legend of Zelda Chess set from USAopoly.
• By Board Game Revolution, A Place in the Sun from Vermin Games (assuming it funds on Kickstarter).

Amazon deals:

• Catan from Catan Studios for 41% off.
• 7 Wonders from Asmodee for 54% off.
• Vikings on Board from Blue Orange Games for 70% off.
• Wonky from USAopoly for 41% off.
• Castellan from Steve Jackson Games for 43% off.

…and from Stronghold Games:

• Village for 45% off.
• Medina for 50% off.
• Jorvik for 47% off.
• Bear Valley for 66% off.
• Outpost for 62% off.
• Milestones for 56% off.

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ASTRA, the American Specialty Toy Retailing Association’s Marketplace & Academy, is an annual show focused on the needs of small, independent, local toy and game stores. This year’s event was earlier this week (June 25-28) in Philadelphia.

The marketplace aspect of ASTRA refers to an exhibit hall with approximately 500 exhibitors (a significant increase since the last time I attended in 2012). Among them I found on display a number of new products, which I will share with you over the coming few days.

ASTRA’s academy aspect features a range of professional development workshops for retailers, including lessons on predicting trends, managing employees, marketing to local communities, negotiating with sales reps, and much more.

Overall, the event feels like a smaller, somewhat more relaxed version of Toy Fair with a larger educational component—a good fit for the independent retailers, as well as the manufacturers and publishers looking for business in that market.

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Fantasy Grounds virtual tabletop is running a sale on a bunch of individual extensions (20% off), as well as complete bundles for D&D (25% off) and Savage Worlds (20% off).

Cool Stuff Inc. is holding a Wild West Sale. I don’t see a connection between the products and the theme but there are items up to 50% off.

The price of the Tokaido mobile app has been reduced to $2.99 on iOS and $3.49 on Android.

Asmodee Digital’s Summer Sale means discounts of up to 70% on app and in-app purchases (Android, iOS, Steam, Amazon).

Spiel Pro is giving away one die… with 120 sides!

A Pawn’s Perspective is giving away a Smash Up All-Stars pack from AEG.

Game Wire is giving away promo cards for The Lost Expedition from Osprey Games.

To enter Toys “R” Us’ weekly $250 gift card giveaway, submit a photo of your child playing with their favorite toy.

Bundle of Holding describes Modiphius Entertainment’s Mutant Chronicles as “dieselpunk techno-fantasy.” On top of that, the company is offering the core rulebook and two supplements for just $12.95. At the threshold price of $22.35, Bundle of Holding will throw in a campaign and four more source books.

Devetos Gaming is giving away V-Commandos from Iron Bean Games and promo dice for Renegade Game Studio’s Fuse.

For the 35th anniversary of the movie The Thing, Mondo is giving away a poster and a copy of the upcoming The Thing board game it’s producing with USAOpoly.

Save $10 on shipping and handling charges from Paizo with orders of $100 or more.

While the staff of Superior Print on Demand is away on vacation get 30% off playing card decks with promo code “VACACARDS30” and 15% off book printing with promo code “VACABOOKS10” (standard website orders only).

Everything Board Games is giving away You Bet-Cha! from Gray Matters Games and a demo copy of This War of Mine Board Game from Galakta.

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For tax purposes, at least, government officials in India have declared board games a luxury good and instituted for them a 28 percent import duty (versus the current weighted average of 6.5 percent). The move comes as part of a general realignment meant to replace state-level tax systems. Also defined as a luxury good in the new system is laundry detergent.

A media producer at the Hamas Interior Ministry in Gaza is promoting a Snakes & Ladders-like board game aimed at “strengthening children’s military culture and love of jihad.” The game is titled Reaching Jerusalem.

In Washington Parish, Louisiana, a 38 year old-man was playing a board game with his mother and girlfriend. When the two others began fighting, he joined in, grabbing his mother by the neck, throwing her to the ground, and hitting her in the head with a cast-iron frying pan. Commenting on the case, the local sheriff was quoted as saying, “It is unimaginable to think that a grown man would physically assault his mother. The biblical command to love one’s mother is not a suggestion. It is a commandment that requires an unconditional love for our parents.”

The Court of Arbitration for Sport in Switzerland has ruled against the Bulgarian Chess Federation’s appeal of its expulsion from the European Chess Union.

FIDE first suspended the Iranian Chess Federation for failure to pay money owed the world body, then reinstated it.

A 65 year-old Chess tutor in Deerfield Beach, Florida is charged with molesting one of his 7 year-old students during a session. Before the session, he had told the student’s guardian to leave so as not to distract her.

An online Chess app was the tool by which a 52 year-old Illinois man enticed a 15 year-old Connecticut girl in to a sexual relationship. Using the app’s chat feature, he convinced her to share photos and videos of herself. Then he traveled to Connecticut to meet the girl in person. The man has pleaded guilty in federal court to use of an interstate facility to persuade a minor to engage in unlawful sexual activity.

Supposedly, one student at West Texas A&M recorded a group of other students against their wishes while they were playing strip dice. The allegedly-recorded students complained to campus police but police declined to pursue the case further after finding no such video recordings on either the student’s phone or social media.

In Hong Kong, the janitor of a Mahjong school was sentenced to 8 months in jail for his part in a cheating scheme. He had opened the door overnight for people that came in and switched some of the school’s regular tiles for ones marked with an ink visible to those wearing special glasses. What didn’t require special glasses to see, though, and the way the scheme was caught, was that the new Mahjong tiles were made in a different color than the original ones.

A $1,000 collection of Magic: The Gathering cards was stolen from an unlocked car in Peoria, Illinois.

After leaving the LaGrange, Georgia home of two strangers with whom he was playing dice, a man was allegedly attacked by those same strangers and cut with an unknown weapon.

Shots were fired during an argument over a dice game in St. Louis. One person suffered minor injuries.

Shots fired during an argument over a dice game in Louisville, Kentucky passed through the window of a nearby home and killed a 7 year-old boy.

In Prachuap Khiri Khan, Thailand, an arrest warrant has been issued for a man accused of shooting and killing two others during an argument over a dice game.

Punching and shoving erupted during a Dominoes game in Jamaica.

In Bridgeton, New Jersey, robbers who were rebuffed when attempting to take on a front-porch card game just after midnight decided to turn and shoot while running away. The shots hit one of the players in the leg.

In Beaumont, Texas, robbers who held up a 20-person dice game found most of the players cooperative but were refused by one 56 year-old woman, so they shot her twice.

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Jaipur, Asmodee’s head-to-head, set-collecting card game about trade caravans in India, is now available on mobile (Android, iOS). It can be played against three levels of AI or against another live player online.

CMON has a new companion app for Zombicide: Black Plague. Among other features, the app manages the zombie spawning deck, helps with inventory maintenance, and tracks experience and skill options. It also synchronizes over a network to track all players’ game states.

As announced by Paizo, two digital Pathfinder games are in the works. One, Pathfinder: Kingmaker, is a computer RPG and is being developed by Owlcat Games. In it, players start out as adventurers but are able to claim the lands they explore and, thus, carve out their own kingdoms. The other, Pathfinder Duels, is a digital collectible card game based on the Rise of the Runelords Adventure Path and is scheduled for release in September. It’s being developed by 37Games.

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Eh. After watching three episodes of The Toy Box, the toy-focused, Shark Tank like television show on ABC, I’m not impressed. Though, perhaps I’m jaded from 9 years attending Toy Fair… Actually, some of the toys in the first three episodes of The Toy Box weren’t bad. But not bad just doesn’t cut it. I mean, Mattel, who promises to produce the winning toy, doesn’t need a televised national competition to come up with dolls that have ballet costumes and a couple of extra degrees of articulation.

Not that a decently made new doll, or nested foam sports balls, couldn’t find some room in the marketplace. These ideas, though, do nothing for a large established toy company like Mattel, which has many designers on staff, as well as existing relationships with experienced outside inventors. Frankly, I don’t think the average viewer either is going to be much impressed.

The concept, I believe, has a lot of potential but the first three episodes so far haven’t realized it. The mentors representing the first on-screen evaluation stage are far too calm and gentle. Here’s a guy who sold his house and moved back in with his mother to finance production of a kind of plush he didn’t realize was already in the market from a different company. Another contestant’s brilliant idea is to make a stiff curved swing-set seat specifically for kids to stand on. Does that really require $130 specialized equipment? Definitely not. But throughout, the panel of expert mentors is calm and polite and barely challenges the inventors other than to express “concerns”. Liven it up guys!

By the way, let me say from personal experience, with an emergency room visit and stitches to the head, that standing on a swing-set seat is not a safe activity for children!

The second evaluation stage in each episode—before a panel of four children judges—you’d think would be a lot more fun to watch. Unfortunately, it just isn’t. Eleven year-old actors paid to look young and recite adult lines are lacking in chemistry and spontaneity.

Now maybe you think differently. Maybe you have more confidence in what will come out of this series. If so, you should know that the final chosen toy—whatever that will turn out to be—is already in production and will be sold exclusively at Toys “R” Us beginning May 20th. Toys “R” Us is also running a sweepstakes, where the grand prize includes travel for four to Los Angeles, a tour of Mattel headquarters, $1,500 in gift cards, and a meeting with the show’s winning inventor.

Also, if you think you have the perfect toy or game for Mattel, MysticArt Pictures is already casting inventors for a second season. And a U.K. version of the show has been licensed to Electus International. Maybe that one will be better. I hope so.

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Tokaido, a game from publishers Funforge and Passport about traveling the East sea road in Japan, is now available in digital form (Android and iOS). At first glance, it appears to do a good job of maintaining the tabletop version’s beautiful aesthetic. There’s strategy for sure but the board game, at least, I enjoyed as much for the journey as for the winning. Single player, pass-and-play, and online multiplayer options are all available.

Zynga, in collaboration with Hasbro, has released Boggle With Friends. Available on Android and iOS, Boggle With Friends has both head-to-head and solo game modes, and is free-to-play with in-app purchases.

Also licensed from Hasbro, Marmalade Game Studio has released mobile versions of Clue (A.K.A. Cluedo) for Android and iOS. Right now, it’s single-player only but a multiplayer mode is planned.

Dungeons & Dragons-based Planescape: Torment is coming back in an Enhanced Edition from Beamdog playable on PC and mobile.

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The latest deal at Bundle of Holding is for Traveller20, the d20 adaptation of Traveller and a fantastic resource for any version of the game. The Player’s Collection is priced at $12.95 and is already a pretty good deal but it’s the Referee’s Collection that really ramps up the value, which starting at $27 includes the full rule set, several setting books, more starship guides, separate adventures, and a campaign book.

For the month of March, Academy Games is bundling Fief, the Fief Expansions Pack, and Fief Buildings Pack for $130.

Dog Might Games is offering free worldwide shipping on all its wood boxes and trays this week only. It’s also giving away a $180 flaming birch Adventure Case on April 1st.

Apps from Asmodee Digital are on-sale at discounts of up to 60% for the next several days. Ticket To Ride, Small World 2, Splendor, Mysterium, Potion Explosion, Pandemic, and Colt Express are all included (Android, iOS, and PC), as are even some in-app purchases. Mysterium on Steam and in-app Ticket to Ride USA 1910 are excluded, however.

Until the launch of Mora Games’ crowdfunding project, the company is collecting email addresses for a giveaway of three copies of Wages of War.

Susan Polgar’s The Polgar Method of video Chess lessons is 60% off.

With Passover approaching, Amazon has a coupon for an additional 15% off TorahLine from 613 Games.

Other Amazon deals:

• Z-Man’s Pandemic Legacy Blue is 38% off, while Pandemic Legacy Red is only 31% off.
• Cryptozoic’s Hobbit Deck Building Game is 65% off.
• Mayfair’s La Strada is 58% off, Shear Panic is 52% off, Horus is 68% off (before shipping), Mad City is 57% off, and Asgard’s Chosen is 71% off.
• Mayfair’s Ablaze is $7.07 and Justinian is only $4.97 (plus shipping).
• Passport’s Kalua is 61% off.
• Z-Man’s Skyline 3000 is 68% off, Cleopatra’s Caboose is 71% off, and Spectral Rails is 76% off.

Savage World Bennies are 15% off direct from Pinnacle Entertainment.

EverythingBoardGames is giving away The Village Crone from Fireside Games and, along with the Crazy Like a Box Board Game Community, is giving away one-year memberships and a copy of Rising Sun (currently on Kickstarter).

Hasbro’s Toilet Trouble and Fantastic Gymnastics are $2 off at Toys “R” Us.

For the game’s 15th anniversary, Spectrum Games has a complete bundle of Cartoon Action Hour ebooks for 80% off.

March Madness means 30% off on basketball products from Strat-O-Matic. And the start of spring training means 25% off on card sets for select baseball seasons.

The prices on printed versions of the Ghastly Affair Player’s Manual and Ghastly Affair Presenter’s Manual have been reduced $5.

Complete ThinkFun’s customer survey to be entered in every future monthly giveaway by the company. And don’t forget to mention Purple Pawn as one of your sources for information.

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